the case of Theebaw Min. The consecration by a-behttheht is completed in three special ceremonies, as was the case with the Payah-loung chosen to be the first ruler.

1. Yaza beht-theht, the consecrating of him as king. 2. Manda beht-theht, the solemn marrying him to a queen of royal lineage.

3. Thenga beht-theht, the confirmation or renewal of his engagement to abide by the laws, whereupon full powers for the government and administration of the country are conferred.

The actual coronation ceremony is a mere form nowadays, but is intended to mark the claim of the Lord of the Golden Palace to be the representative of the universal monarch.1 It consists principally in incantations and sprinkling with holy water from the Ganges, performed by the pohnnas, the Brahmin astrologers, the Burman yahans having nothing whatever to do with it. Besides the pohnnas, only a few of the chief ministers are present. The really national part of the ceremony is the royal progress round the city moat, made seven days after the a-beht-theht. The king leaves the city by the Eastern Gate, the precise moment being notified by a discharge of cannon. He then enters the state barge, a most gorgeously gilt and carved construction, surpassing even the traditional coach of the Lord Mayor of London. This boat is then slowly rowed round the moat, with music clashing all around, and bands of dancers supplying the place of a rejoicing populace. Then when the circuit has been completed, the newly-crowned monarch enters again between the guardian ogres of the Eastern Gate, a fresh salvo of artillery announcing the arrival at the palace.

1 The Sekya-waday king, who never makes his appearance during the time allotted to the publication and duration of the religious institutions of a Buddha.

The ceremony is simple enough, but Theebaw Min has never gone through it. In the first days of his reign he was afraid to leave the nandaw, lest conspirators might find the chance too good a one to lose, and later on, a fear that the delayed festival might suggest ideas of previous faint-heartedness came in the way. Consequently, though he is crowned successor to Mahah Thamada as far as the a-beht-theht is concerned, and therefore becomes the source of the law, the guardian of the welfare of the country, the recipient of the revenues, and the chief administrator of justice, he is hardly yet a successor to the warlike Alompra. Possibly the failure to assume the sturdy spirit of the first of the family may account for the deficiency in some of the attributes derived from the first king, a deficiency which even the most loyal of Upper Burmans is occasionally induced to acknowledge with bated breath.

The first ruler was chosen for his strict adherence to the five fundamental precepts now incumbent on all men, and for his general sanctity. These qualities are inherent in all his successors, though sometimes it is difficult to distinguish them. From them sprang four other laws incumbent on all kings and rulers. These thengaha kingly laws, or byammazoyah, are as follows::

1. Tha-tha mayda, ordaining that he shall not receive more than a tithe of the produce of the country.

2. Pooreetha mayda, ordaining that the king shall engage to pay his servants and army once every six months.

3. Thama-patha, by which the king binds himself to assist his subjects with money, and to receive payment of it within three years, without charging interest.

4. Wahsa-payah, the use of courteous and fitting language, according to the age and position in life of the persons addressed.

It is to be feared that these kindly kingly laws are not found suitable to the conditions of modern society. At any rate they are not very strictly observed by Theebaw Min.

Nevertheless that monarch is very far from being such an unlovely character as most Europeans have been led to believe. It is explicitly denied by many that he drinks at all; it is certain that whatever excesses he may have plunged into in the remorse caused by the massacres of February, 1879, he is assuredly not a confirmed drunkard. His worst fault-I am writing from a Burman point of view-is that he is easy, or call it weak-spirited if you like. It is an open secret that he was not intended to be king. His father, Mindohn Min, had a strong liking for the young yahan, but his intention was that the pious and well-read Nyoung Yan prince, now a refugee at Barrackpore, near Calcutta, was to be his successor, and if the court or the town had been polled, the choice would have fallen on the same burly, good-natured individual.

It must be understood that, notwithstanding the precautions for the preservation of the pure blood-royal, the system of keeping a princess ta-bin-deing, to be married to the new ruler, it by no means follows that the eldest son of this union, or, indeed, any son by this queen at all, necessarily succeeds to the throne. It is not often that there is a recognised Ehng-shay min, an heir-apparent to the throne, but when there is such a dignitary, he may be the fifth, or the tenth, or the thirtieth son, the only stipulation being that he shall be the child of one of the four chief queens. The nomination rests with the king. A consideration of the gruesome history of the parricide kings, who reigned in one of the countries of the Myissee Madaytha, the middle country, as India is called, each of

whom ascended a throne stained with a father's blood, until the horrified populace of Pataliputra revolted and exterminated the whole house; the reading of this bloody chapter in the royal annals may prompt the custom, but it is certain that it is not often that the heir to the throne is recognised. The late king made no sign till his last illness came upon him. Then when it was evident that he could not survive, he named the Nyoung Yan mintha and after him the yellow-robed Theebaw prince. Then palace intrigue began. The Theebaw prince, it was wellknown, had a passion for the ta-bin-deing, Selin Soo-payah (Selina Sophia as she was called by some of the English residents in Mandalay) and the second of the Soo-payahs, for there were three of them, was equally enamoured of the young Patama Byan. Therefore the queen-mother resolved to gratify all parties, and become herself queen dowager. She opened up communications with the then all-powerful Kin Woon-min-gyee, the Premier as he was usually called. That crafty minister saw continued power in store for himself if he could get the unsophisticated pyin-sin placed on the throne. Therefore he threw himself into the plot. The princes were summoned by a forged royal order to come before his majesty, bid him farewell and hear his nomination of a successor. As they came up to the hmaw gaw, the mirror throne room, where the king's body afterwards lay in state, they were seized separately and forthwith hurried off to prison. The Nyoung Yan and his brother, the Nyoung Oke prince, received timely warning, and instead of coming to the palace went straight off for sanctuary to the English church, whence they afterwards escaped, disguised, to the protection of the British flag in the compound of the British residency. But though they thus saved their lives, as appeared five months afterwards, when the other

princes were done to death, the throne was lost, for Theebaw was left master of the situation, and soon completed his arrangements for securing his position. At first everything went well. It was necessary to retain the support of the Kin Woon-gyee and that astute minister, acting on the idea that he could easily manage the raw young exneophyte, proceeded to draw up a scheme for a constitutional government, the greater part of which was written for him by the late Dr. Clement Williams, the first English Resident in Mandalay, and afterwards an independent trader. This constitution was published with a great flare of trumpets and much talk about the establishment of Western methods and the raising of Burma to the rank of a first-class Eastern power. The people at large did not perceive any very radical difference as far as the payment of moneys was concerned, under the new system. Perhaps it would have turned out well if it had lasted. But it was not destined to last.

As soon as the funeral rights of the dead king were over, and Theebaw Min had been sprinkled with the consecrated water by the pohnnas, he proposed to marry Selina Sophia," and take the younger sister, the Soopayah Lat, along with her according to agreement. But the ta-bin-deing was not willing. On the contrary, she took the altogether unprecedented step of cutting off her hair and entering a nunnery. The slighted golden

monarch was furious. The two luckless maids of honour of the scornful beauty had their hands chopped off by the "spotted man." What became of the nun herself no one seems to know. Whether she is in her grave or in a jungle convent is a matter which neither her friends nor her enemies will reveal. Theebaw Min at any rate had to be satisfied with the Soo-payah Lat. He very soon found that he had quite enough to do with